Tag, On the Way to Dinner & Holoshow
by PaperKat
Summary: Companion to Starhawk's First Saga. Andros, Zhane and Ashley try and have an evening together as 'just friends'.


These three stories were written to be a companion to Starhawk's First Saga, more specifically it falls between First Love's Team Work and Thinking Thing. I don't own the Power Rangers in any of their incarnations.

Tag

Written by PaperKat

Zhane leaned against the back wall of the raised platform that overlooked the playing field called the 'dead zone' waiting for his time to expire so that he could go back out in the 'killing field'. It was the second time he had 'died' since they had started and it had taken an almost embarrassingly short amount of time for him to get there, if he cared about such things, which he didn't. In fact, he liked having this free time to roll though the stats displayed on the game card strapped to his forearm.

The three of them had arrived at the laser tag facility not quite at its peak hour, but there had already been a group formed for the next game. As was want to happen when a Ranger arrived at such things, they were asked if they would like to have a private game for just the three of them ahead of the other group. He had immediately balked at the idea. 

The three of them already had enough issues without adding the psychological pressure of deciding whom they were going to shoot and kill first, though it would have been interesting to see. But before he had had a chance to refuse, Ashley had already protested with a good amount of embarrassment at the idea that they were going to 'cut in line'. Andros, as was typical for Andros, hadn't offered an opinion either way.

Zhane smiled remembering the look of near horror on the other gamers' faces when they had realized that they were going to be up against three Rangers. Some of that had dissipated when Ashley had cheerfully introduced them to the group without any thought to the fact that they had probably already knew who they were. 

It had been easy to see that she had charmed a few of them instantly by her genuine unwillingness to skip ahead of them and the rest had soon followed suit when she had been so openly friendly. Zhane had also noticed that while Ash had won the civilians over the feeling had not carried over to the Red Ranger. 

When their group had been called, Andros had stepped forward to let her know since she had been too distracted to hear. As soon as he had placed his hand on her shoulder the group in front of her had taken a giant step back maintaining the distance between them and him. But that was how it had always been, and most likely the way it would always be, Him and Them, unless something was done about it.

The only other person that was 'dead' with him was the one that had 'killed' him and Zhane had to smile. It seemed that even while the three of them were trying to relax and break away from their Ranger lives, some things were just too ingrained to overcome. He rolled the display on his arm and looked at the tale-tell stats.

Ashley had become an equal opportunity sniper. There wasn't a single person out there that she hadn't hit at least twice, him and Andros included. But while out on the floor, Zhane had heard the Yellow Ranger quietly encouraging the other players to take shots at Andros. It was easy for him to see that she was trying to lessen the formal distance between the legendary ranger and the people he protected.

It didn't take long for her to practically insight a riot against the Red Ranger. Unlike the first ten minutes where they all avoided him, now they were actively seeking him out and trying their best to get him. It had differently kept Andros on his toes, and once or twice he had heard his friend laugh when he had been tagged by one of the more unlikely attackers, but as of yet Andros hadn't been 'killed'.

Zhane knew that was in a large part due to him. As soon as he had noticed that Andros was greatly outnumbered he had gone to cover his back. On a few occasions he had found himself fighting for the chance to defend his friend because Ashley had been right there too. Every time they bumped into each other they would laugh at the absurdity of the situation and run away from each other trying their best to take each other out.

So far he was the only one that had been 'killed' twice and everyone else but Andros and Ashley had been 'killed' once. The civilians had caused most of the 'causalities'. He and Ashley had 'killed' one apiece and Andros had made two very telling 'kills'.

A shout of dismay out on the floor caught Zhane's attention only because he recognized it as the one Ash used when Astrea landed her on her backside during sparring practice. Sure enough, a new stat showed up on his game card, Ashley had been 'killed'. A knowing smirk showed on Zhane's face as he started to silently count. 

One, two, three, fou… His screen blinked and then showed that the civilian that had 'killed' Ash was now very 'dead'. If Andros' laser had of been real nothing short of a DNA scan would have been able to identify the body, just like his other two victims. The ones that 'died' three seconds after they had 'killed' Zhane.

"Are you 'dead' again?!" Ashley exclaimed when she bounced onto the 'dead zone' platform. She linked her arm through his and leaned dangerously over the short wall to look out over the play floor.

"Hey!" he protested and pulled her back. Whether he was objecting to the 'dead' again comment or her leaning he wasn't sure. 

She gave him a Look but ruined it with a wide grin. She still tried to see out across the floor but she allowed him to hold her back. Zhane suddenly realized that this was probably the first time that she had allowed a touch between them to last longer than a polite few seconds since everything got weird between them months ago. He frowned when it also brought to mind that she had been unusually hands off with everyone, with the exception of Karone whom she seemed to lavish attention on.

He didn't know for sure how Ashley felt, but he wondered if the lack of casual intimacy was as wearing for her as it was for him. The two of them were very tactile people and Andros was not, but where Ashley had always been accepting of the fact that she had to initiate most physical contact between herself and the Red Ranger, he was becoming more and more unaccepting of it. 

"Zhane?" Ashley entreated as she started to pull away. 

He winced inwardly. Here Ashley had taken to heart the spirit of the evening to have fun and just enjoy each other's company and he was ruining it by being all Andros-y. Zhane grabbed her hand before she could get too far away and leaned over the wall himself.

"How long do you think he's going to last out there without us?"

Ashley giggled and tried to look over his shoulder, lying partially over his back to do so. "Not long I imagine since it's ten to one and he's already ninety percent damaged."

"Hey!" Ashley called out. She suddenly stood up straight and turned around. Zhane found himself yanked along behind her as she made her way to the stairs that lead up to the 'dead zone'. 

"Where on Earth were you hiding? I didn't even see you!"

It took Zhane a moment to realize that Ashley was speaking to the guy that had knocked her out of play temporarily. By the look of confusion on the guy's face he reasoned that the startled boy was either trying to puzzle out the slang Ashley just used or the motives behind her speaking to him.

"Ju… just on the other side of the track pillar." He stammered. "There's a niche to the left."

"Really?" Ashley considered his answer and mumbled absently. "I thought I checked there." She turned to Zhane and wrinkled her nose with distaste. "You know that if Andros gets a good look at the stats for the game we're both going to earn extra time on the Simudeck for combat training."

"The Red Ranger wouldn't really do that would he?" The other boy asked. "It's just a game."

Ashley answered 'No' and Zhane answered 'Yes' and both of their assassins laughed at the exasperated looks they gave each other. A chime from his game card alerted Zhane that he was allowed to return to the game. Three seconds later his 'killer's' sounded.

"You go left and I'll go right." Zhane told the boy that was preparing to leave with him. Without waiting the Silver Ranger took off to the right.

Moving easily through the maze of tunnels, ceilingless hallways and strategically placed obstacles, Zhane only shot those that were directly in his path and had the misfortune of being in his hiding places. He wasn't trying to win the game, neither were Ashley or Andros. They were just trying to have some fun. And from the shout that he had just heard Ash give she was having the time of her life.

He was sure that the yell was suppose to sound like a battle cry, but when she was this carefree it was hard for her to keep the laughter out of her voice. She had just declared her intent to eliminate the Red Ranger there by making sure that Andros was more than ready to defend himself. 

Wanting a front row seat to his best friend's demise, Zhane worked his way around the floor looking for either Ash or Andros. He was taking far more hits than he should have and before he knew it his damage was up to ninety-four percent. All it would take at this point for his third 'death' and subsequent removal from the rest of the game was one critical hit to the chest or three tags anywhere else on his body.

Deciding that he better start paying closer attention to his own status instead of that of Andros and Ashley, Zhane stepped around the corner and was confronted with a female civilian with her laser tag pistol aimed directly at his chest. He didn't even have time to react when a yellow tinged blur ran in front of him.

"What do you think you are doing?" Ashley demanded as she returned fire.

He didn't get a chance to answer when she pushed him backwards, her back to his front, protecting him from the laser fire of the civilian. Ashley was too busy keeping her opponent occupied to see the tunnel to their left so Zhane wrapped his arm around her waist and dragged her inside.

"You do realize that if you 'die' again you're out of the game. We still have a full half an hour left to play! What fun is it going to be if the three of us don't make it all the way to the end together?"

"Besides, think of the bad publicity." Zhane offered looking down at Ashley's game card over her shoulder. That last round of fire had taken her down nearly all the way.

"Yes, I can just imagine what the Council would have to say about their Rangers not being able to survive one game of laser tag."

At the sound of the Red Ranger's voice, both Zhane and Ashley whirled around to find Andros behind them, his laser raised. Without hesitation Ashley wrapped her arm around Zhane's throat from behind pulling him down and backwards slightly.

"Stay back or the blonde gets it!" Ashley announced sticking her own laser into Zhane's ribs.

"Hey! I don't remember signing up for martyrdom." He complained around his laughter.

"Too bad, Goldilocks. He won't shoot you." She hissed in his ear.

Andros' eyes were alight with amusement his own barely suppressed laughter making his aim uncertain. "You won't either after all the work you just went through to keep him alive."

Ashley made a noise somewhere between a growl and a groan as she began to back them away. Zhane had thought about struggling or just dropping, but this was far more entertaining.

"Come on Ash. Let him go and finish what you started."

"Oh, I plan on it."

The purely evil purr of her statement should have told Zhane something was up but he was as surprised as Andros was when the Red Ranger's game card chimed signaling he had been 'killed'. 

"That was too easy, Ashley." The voice behind Andros told them.

"I told you, Mira. Stick with me and we'll rule this town! Just remember the deal."

"Yeah, I know." The girl named Mira said when she stepping into the limited light in the tunnel. Zhane instantly recognized her as the one that had just a few minutes ago attacked him in the hallway. "In exchange for your help in the 'death' of the Red Ranger we'll leave Zhane alone until the last five minutes of play. After that everyone's fair game."

Zhane burst out laughing at Andros' blown away expression as he watched Ashley and her new ally walk away together.

"I'm starting to see that we're very lucky to have her on our side."

"'Our' side? Who said she's on 'our' side? Looks to me like she's on my side. I'm the one that's still alive." Zhane told his friend slinging his arm across Andros' shoulders. "Don't worry I'll put a good word in for you, and maybe Ash will let you live through to the end of the game."

"What do you mean 'let' me live?"

The two of them ribbed each other all the way back to the 'dead zone', never noticing the laughing brown eyes that followed them.

End Tag

On the way to Dinner

Written by PaperKat

Andros knew that he was glaring and he didn't care. He knew that Zhane was walking beside him and frowning his disapproval, but he didn't care. He saw other patrons entering the Laser Tag Facility take a wide berth around him and his black look, but he didn't care. All that he cared about at that moment was that Ashley was oblivious to all of this.

She was ahead of them skipping along with Mira and her friends chatting adamantly about the game they had just played. The three of them had 'won' if you could call it that. They had made their final stand together against the civilians during the last five minutes of play. Zhane had been between him and Ashley since he had been the most vulnerable. When the game was over they had been still 'alive' and together, but you wouldn't have been able to tell that by the way Ashley was behaving.

Ashley just couldn't keep her feet on the ground as she spilt her attention between the people talking around her, as if they had been the ones to stand with her at the end. On a couple of occasions she had very nearly knock a few of her newfound friends over when she failed to notice they had slowed for turns.

Another one of those incidents happened just as they were about to exit the building and the boy that she had run into threw his arm around Ashley's shoulders to steady her when she stumbled. She hastily apologized, smiling up at his startled and flushed face before continuing her conversation.

Andros suddenly noticed how different Ashley and Zhane's similarities were. Both of them drew people to them whether they tried to or not. It just came naturally to them, but where Ashley drew acquaintances Zhane had always drawn admirers. Was that why he got so much more defensive when Zhane was out with others? 

"You do realize that you don't really have any sort of Laser Vision of Death, right?" Zhane asked once they were outside and the noises there masked his voice.

Andros didn't look away. Ashley had just told Mira that she would try and come to a regularly scheduled outing later in the month. "Ashley is a Ranger on a planet that knows who she is. She shouldn't make herself so accessible to the public."

__

Don't. 

Andros blinked at the barely concealed anger in Zhane's mental voice. Ashley's head turned their way and the confusion on her face told him that while she must not of heard what Zhane said she must of sensed something. There was a faint brush across his consciousness and suddenly she smiled at them and returned to her attention to Mira apparently appeased by whatever Zhane had told her.

His friend stepped into his line of sight and turned to face him. The smile slipped from his lips and Zhane's eyes hardened slightly as he looked at him. Startled by the censor he saw there, Andros couldn't help what he said next.

"What?"

__

Andros, they're not the enemy so stop glaring at them like they are! 

"I'm not…" Andros flinched when he realized he had spoken aloud and Ashley's group turned to look at him. _I'm not doing that_.

Zhane gave him a look that told him that he didn't believe him.

__

Ashley needs to realize that things aren't like they were on Earth. People know who she is, and they expect a Ranger to behave in a certain way. He reminded his friend.

__

That's Bull and you know it, Andros. If anyone on this team is going to raise any eyebrows it's me. Can't you see that she's just lonely for company outside of the Rangers?

Only one part of Zhane's reprimand sank in past the surface of Andros' thoughts and froze his heart. _She's just lonely_. Hadn't it been loneliness that had driven Zhane to Ty? Something akin to panic gripped him and wouldn't let him breathe. Ashley wouldn't, would she?

__

Andros, are you ok? 

He didn't get a chance to answer Zhane's genuinely concerned question before they were tackled from the side. Ashley wrapped her arms around their necks and then let herself hang from them. The two of them were forced to link forearms behind her back to keep all of them from toppling over.

"I am way too buzzed to go back home. Where are we going next?"

Ashley was radiating excitement and energy when she smiled at him and he couldn't help the warm smile that responded. How could he doubt her, even for a moment? Zhane tightened his grip on his elbow as he started to laugh. Ashley released them to bounce three steps away then turn to face them.

"Really? I hadn't noticed." Zhane told her blandly. Andros had to suppress a grin when Ash gave him a Look. 

"We could go to the Holo-show playing outside of Cayeron on the beach."

Andros didn't know where the words had come from and he knew that he probably looked as startled as they did. Both Zhane and Ashley stopped cold and blinked owlishly at him as he started to blush. Andros suddenly realized that he was still holding on to Zhane's arm. He pulled away quickly, looking down and jammed his hands into his pockets. 

"Or we could do something else it doesn't start until late anyway and…"

A chorus of repeated 'nos' from both Ashley and Zhane made him snap his head up and he wondered about the odd grin the two of them shared.

"We could drop by Ma and Pa's to pass some of the time. They've been wanting us to come by for a while now."

"Are you sure we should do that?" Ashley questioned as she began to slowly walk backwards down the sidewalk. "Stop by without warning at dinnertime, I mean?"

Zhane waved her question away flippantly following her. "Are you kidding? They'll be ecstatic that I've finally brought a 'nice girl' home for once."

Andros sent a mental warning to Ashley to step to the left to avoid the trash receptacle she was getting ready to back into. Without question, hesitation or even breaking eye contact with Zhane she obeyed and avoided it easily.

"Zhane I've already met them once, remember, after the quest?"

"Ok they'll be ecstatic that I've brought _any _girl home twice."

Ashley rolled her eyes dramatically. With a 'Thanks a lot' she turned away and skipped ahead of them. There were more people out now than there had been before their game, but there weren't so many that Ash couldn't continue forward without stopping. As she moved through them, some civilians slowed to watch her, some even stopped, most had an amused smile on their faces.

"How can she be so oblivious to how they stare at her?" Andros asked, keeping his face carefully neutral as a few of the onlookers finally noticed him and quickly continued on their way.

Zhane turned to him and raised his eyebrow. "You're calling someone 'oblivious'?"

Andros flushed just slightly at the gentle reprimand. He was the first one to admit that he wasn't the most perceptive person when it came to others, once he was told he was being negligent, that is. Not wanting to drum up that kind of conversation again, Andros watched Ashley instead of responding. She had gotten quite a bit ahead of them so she had stopped at a lightpost to wait, but did not stay still even then. With one hand around the post she turned circles around it.

"Out of all of us, Ash is probably the one Ranger that the public is most familiar and comfortable with." Zhane continued on as if he had never asked his rhetorical question. "Between going with me to all those parties, giving the Skyport traffic control heart failure with Astrea and sneaking off to the market with Ty, she's become an almost common site."

"She sneaks out with Ty?"

Zhane gave him an exasperated look. "How did I know that would be the only thing you'd hear?"

Andros was about to defend himself, he hadn't meant to imply anything, the information had just surprised him that's all, but Ashley popped up in front of them before he could. 

"So, do I get to drive to Cayeron?"

"Are you going to be able to keep within the limits?" Zhane asked her.

"Actually driving will probably make her calm down some." Ashley beamed at him and gave Zhane a smug grin.

"See, Andros has faith in me."

"Yeah, that's saying a lot. Have you seen him drive lately?"

Ash gave an indignant gasp and made to punch the Silver Ranger. Zhane backed out of reach and then positioned Andros between them. Ashley made several lunges and a few threats as she tried to defend him and herself from Zhane's remark, but all she succeeded in doing was bumping repeatedly into him. Zhane gave Andros a shove between his shoulders, making the Red Ranger fall into Ashley's arms before running away.

"You're not going to get away that easy!" Ashley yelled after Zhane over Andros' shoulder even as she tightened her arms around him.

He really missed this, her arms around him. For a moment Andros just absorbed the feeling and let it warm him, inside and out. The urge to kiss her suddenly became too strong and he bent his head to her exposed neck. Before he could make contact Ashley was pulling away, once again giving chase to Zhane.

Andros wanted to reach out to her and stop her, but he then remembered where he was and what he was doing. Though the thought left him a bit cold, he had to remind himself that this wasn't date. The three of them were just out having a good time, together, as friends. Zhane and Ashley seemed to be having no trouble with the concept so why was he?

"Are we going to actually get in the hover and leave?" Andros asked, annoyance making his words sound sharp. Whether he was annoyed at the scene the two of them were making by chasing each other around the hover or by the ease they seemed to have with each other he wasn't sure.

Neither one seemed to take offence however, and with a final turn around the vehicle Ashley got into the driver's seat and Zhane claimed 'shotgun'. Andros suppressed a sigh as he got into the backseat and what he thought of as the 'neutral position', neither with Ashley nor Zhane. He was really beginning to hate neutral, no matter how safe it was.

"Sometimes I wish that the Power worked for other things besides the Zords." Ashley commented as she carefully adjusted the controls to her preferences.

"What do you mean?" Andros asked leaning forward between the seats.

"Knowing stuff without really knowing it, ya know."

"Were we suppose to understand that?"

Ashley turned to glare at Zhane, but Andros quickly made her face forward and the traffic with gentle pressure to her chin. 

"What I mean is that I wish I could know how to do stuff like drive this hover or repair unfamiliar controls or even bake a cake like how we just seem to _know_ how to plot a new Zord."

"What fun would that be?" Zhane asked pointing to the left so that Ashley would turn towards their destination. "Half the thrill is figuring stuff out on your own."

"I guess. I don't know. I just feel like I'm so far behind you guys sometimes, even Ty. He knows how to operate almost everything on KO-35, he just chooses not to. I mean I can't even use the library here because I have no idea what I'm doing."

"You learned how to operate and repair the Megaship pretty fast. You'll pick up on the rest as the need calls for it." Andros assured her, placing his hand on her shoulder and squeezing gently.

"Thanks."

"You know it just occurred to me, Ash. You're actually the more experienced Ranger out of all of us."

Ashley laughed and turned to give Zhane an amused look. "You can't be serious. What about boy wonder back there?" She asked hiking her thumb over her shoulder in Andros' direction. "He's been trained to be a Ranger since he was like two."

"I wasn't _that_ young." Andros pouted as he made Ashley face forward again.

"I am being serious. Think about it. You were a Turbo Ranger, an Astro Ranger and now you're a Kerovan Ranger. You even piloted an Aquitian Zord. Who else has more Zord experience than you?"

"That one's easy, Tommy Oliver. He's had like fifty Zords."

"He doesn't count. He was Zordon's golden boy, if it wasn't for Dimitria he probably still be hanging around."

Andros decided not to comment. He had never met Tommy personally, but from what Ashley and the other ex-Turbo Rangers had told him he was practically considered a legend. She seemed to get ready to defend the veteran Ranger when something else must have occurred to her.

"I wonder who our sixth ranger's going to be."

"Sixth ranger?"

"Yeah, you know that annoying sixth ranger that always seems to show up out of the blue and then you just can't seem to get rid of him." Andros told Zhane flatly.

"Hey! I wasn't that bad. Besides wouldn't I have been the seventh ranger, the Phantom Ranger was there first."

"No, the Phantom Ranger was the Turbo's sixth ranger." Ashley corrected him, like a mother might a young child. "You were definitely the Astro's sixth." 

For the rest of the trip the three of them argued over who was the true sixth ranger and of the two who was better at being annoying. The conversation was light, fun and lively and Andros just couldn't stop himself from feeling how right it all seemed, and he didn't want to either.

End On the Way to Dinner

Holo-show

Written by PaperKat

Ashley made her way back to the spot she had left the boys on the beach, licking the orange-red syrup substance from her knuckles before it had a chance to stain. Upon arriving at the holo-show, she had spotted a vender selling sweets just the thing she need after her salty and spicy dinner. It took her a moment to locate them, but Andros' call inside her mind along with a vague sense of direction helped her find them.

Apparently the cold had finally gotten to Zhane because the two of them were huddled under a thermal blanket not too far from where they had been earlier.

"I see you finally listened to reason and got the blanket." 

Zhane didn't bother with a retort back from behind the silver edge of the covering that was pulled up to his eyes. He just narrowed those eyes at her and then shrugged. Andros made an opening for her on his other side and Zhane gave a yelp when the cold air rushed in.

"How can you eat that?! It's freezing out here."

After settling in beside Andros, leaving her right arm out so that she could eat her icy treat, Ashley contemplated his question. 

"It's what I wanted and it's good." She answered with a shrug.

"It would serve you right if your teeth freeze and fall out." Zhane teased, dramatically shivering under the blanket.

"Is it too cold? We could leave." Andros offered serious concern in his voice.

Ashley and Zhane exchanged eye rolls. No matter how cold he got or how tired she was, neither one of them were about to miss the show since it had been Andros' only unprompted suggestion for the evening. 

"He's just mad that I didn't get him one."

As if to prove her point, or more likely to allay Andros' worry, Zhane leaned over and took a bite out of her fruity snack.

"Hey!" She protested, pulling it closer to her as if to protect it.

"You're right it is good." Zhane told her around the ice in his mouth, but as soon as he swallowed he gave a very real shiver. "Still too cold though."

"Then stay off my stick!"

"That's something you don't hear her say very often." Andros said dryly and Zhane chuckled.

Ashley chose to ignore them. She offered her treat to Andros but when he declined with a shake of his head she started eating it herself. It was something like a snow cone on an edible stick. Somehow the ice wasn't completely solid and you got to choose what flavored syrup you wanted to dip it in. She had picked a very tart sweet fruit flavor that she was only able to identify by color. Zhane had told her once what kind of fruit the flavor was suppose to represent, but it didn't seem too important to remember when it was the only orange-red colored one.

Somewhere along the line the show had started and Ashley found herself dividing her attention between the dripping syrup and the images presented for them in the evening sky. It was an interesting show but it was obvious it was a continuation of another one. Zhane and Andros discussed different scenes quietly between them, but they let their voices carry enough that she could hear and comment if she wished.

Once her dessert was gone, Ashley tucked her arm under the blanket to get it as warm as the rest of her. Andros pulled up his arm that had been around her waist and helped her by rubbing her arm from elbow to shoulder. Safely tucked in her warm cocoon Ashley's eyes started to get heavy and her head drifted down to rest on Andros' chest.

She must have dozed off, because the next thing she knew was being lifted off the ground. The sudden gust of cold air that accompanied the change in position made her snuggle deeper into the embrace that could only be Zhane. 

"I can carry her." Andros offered and she was surprised by the wistful tone of his voice.

Zhane chuckled softly, the sound made louder by her ear pressed to his chest. "I think she wants to make it back to the hover without being dropped. Besides, I get the blanket if I carry her."

"I wouldn't drop her." Andros pouted and the blanket was wrapped around the two of them.

They started moving and Zhane shifted her slightly, it didn't take long for the two of them to warm back up. "Andros you look like you could drop yourself. This isn't the first time that I've had to deal with her after she's come down from the sugar high."

It was the truth. During those first months that she had spent on KO-35, before she had ran back to Earth, the two of them had gone to plenty of parties that had lasted well into the night. On two or three occasions her energy reserves had run out before Zhane's and the Silver Ranger had carried her from his hover to the hostel. When she had told him that all he had to do was wake her up he had teased her and said that it wasn't often that he got to have a beautiful woman in his arms, willingly anyway.

"The next time we do this Ash is going to be on my side of the blanket. She's like a little Thermo Heater."

"What? You saying I'm not 'hot' enough for you?"

Ashley bit her lip to keep from giggling and waited for Zhane's snappy comeback, but it never came. All that happened was the slightest falter in his step and a stiffening of his arms. Confused by his lack of response, Ashley continued to pretend to be asleep.

Why didn't Zhane say anything back? When it came to Andros you couldn't get a better opportunity for some teasing. She would have jumped at the chance. Maybe he was self-conscious about her being there? But that didn't make much sense because it had never stopped him from teasing Andros before.

__

'Before' Andros wasn't his boyfriend, just his best friend. She reminded herself and somehow that distinction was very important. 

They came to a stop and she could hear the door to the hover open. Somehow, with seemingly little effort, Zhane got her into the back seat. She had no doubt that if she had of really been asleep she would have stayed that way. The blanket was placed over her and then the door was closed.

Chancing a look, Ashley opened her eyes just enough to see Zhane and Andros through the window. They were standing close, very close and the look the Red Ranger was giving his friend wasn't hard to make out. The lump that formed in her throat made it hard for her to breathe.

Part of her wanted sit up and bang on the window and scream at them that this wasn't a date. This was three friends going out and having fun. Hadn't Zhane told her that they needed to start with _them, _the three of them as friends? Then why was it that Zhane had been receiving Andros' kisses, while she hardly rated a hug anymore?

Almost as soon as the thought formed she knew it wasn't fair. She had had those kisses all to herself for a long time now, and Zhane had not. Although she knew that they had kissed in the past she knew that this was different. 

Now they were kisses of lovers, not just friends, on both sides. In a small way she felt sorry for Zhane because, if Andros got his wish, he would never know what it would be like to have Andros to himself romantically, as she had. But he would also never no the pain that she felt now that she had lost that. Ashley blinked away the sting of tears, because she was unable to look away.

Hadn't Zhane also said that it was better to know what was happening than to imagine? Stomping all thoughts of jealously and envy from her mind, Ashley forced herself to watch objectively as if the two of them were strangers to her. 

The striped haired boy leaned closer to his companion, a tired yet suggestive grin tilting his lips. He lifted his hand to tug at the blonde's jacket while at the same time the other stiffened slightly, but didn't pull away. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but somehow she could almost feel the tension between them. But it was tension from two different sources.

The two of them moved to get into the hover and she closed her eyes. They didn't say anything until the hover was in motion. At first the conversion was light and meaningless, small talk to pass the time, but soon the boy in red sighed wistfully and she couldn't keep her eyes closed any longer. She couldn't see them directly but their ghostly reflections in the windshield showed her enough and strangely it helped her maintain the elution of unknowing.

The sweet longing on the red one's face was at odds with his suggestive dialogue, but somehow it made it all the more charming. Her snickers were hard to repress, but she settled for a smile and listened to the blonde's evasive responses and stuttering replies. It became all too clear that the kitten was attempting to stalk the tiger, and somehow had backed the mighty predator into a corner.

She waited for the moment when the hunted became the hunter, but she was doomed to disappointment. Curious as to why, she focused her attention on the boy in silver and the look on his face brought Ashley back to her own awareness.

She had seen that look often enough, because she had worn it herself in the early days of her and Andros' relationship. The expression on Zhane's face practically screamed frustration. Didn't Andros see what he was doing to his friend? Then she remembered whom she was talking about. Of course Andros didn't see it!

Ashley closed her eyes again and settled herself comfortably in the seat, a knowing smile lit her face. Zhane may not get to experience Andros' amorous advances in the singular, but it appeared that he was going to get a taste of what it was like to be flirted with by someone that was completely clueless to the effect he had on someone that wanted him fiercely. If Ashley didn't miss her guess, Zhane was going to be spending one sleepless night tonight!

End Holo-show


End file.
